GF: Fried Chickpeas

Just a quick post tonight.

I’m feeling incredibly tired. Mostly due to my busy week (grades due, teaching a six hour tech workshop, starting a wiki project with my 150 students, etc) combined with a full-on cold that has left me with a wacky voice (almost no voice) and the sniffles.

Tonight I’m taking the night off…. I’m sitting under a comforter cuddled up with my pup and my love. It’s movie night… or nap night… whichever happens, I don’t care. I’ve only had a few hours of sleep each night for the last three nights and I just need to unplugged for a while.

Last night I made a relatively quick snack that was great to pack in my lunch today. Sadly, I don’t have any left as my taste-testing colleagues quickly and happily gobbled it up. I love that! It’s good to have food buddies at work! Since it met with their approval, I thought I would share this quick recipe with you all as well.

I made fried chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with rosemary and sea salt. I made just one can, but wish I would have made at least two cans. It was gone too quickly for all of us at lunch today.

We first had these fried chickpeas – my colleagues and I – at Lola, the Tom Douglas’s restaurant we visited while at a conference in Seattle. Since we’ve returned, they have asked me daily if I had recreated them yet. (I’m sure this is mostly because I barely waited a day before making the chickpea fries from Lola too. LOL) They know me well enough to know that I was undoubtedly going to be trying them out anyway. They were banking on it.

Try these with whatever seasoning mix you’d like. We tried curry (that was good), herbs de provence (not sure I’m sold here, but some people liked it), chili and lime, etc. Whatever fits your fancy and mood. It will work.

Do let me in on your favorite taste combinations -I’d love to try them too!

Rinse garbanzo beans well. Drain. Spread drained beans onto several layers of paper towels. Rub with a few additional paper towels on top – be careful not to crush the soft beans. This will loosen the skins.

Rinse the garbanzo beans again and remove the skins. (If there are a few remaining skins, no worries. They taste good fried too!)

Drain the beans well.

Spread the drained beans on to paper towels and gently dry by patting with another paper towel.

Test by removing a bean, allowing it to cool a bit, and then breaking it open. It should be fried completely through – without any large soft spots within the bean. The beans will be a golden brown when done.

Drain fried beans of excess oil. Place the drained/fried beans in an ovenproof dish and slide in to the warm oven.

Continue frying until all batches have been fried and drained.

Toss together fried beans with crushed rosemary and sea salt.

Store in an airtight container on the counter.

I have no idea how long these will last – probably a week or more. However, they have never lasted more than a couple days at my house. LOL

13 comments on “GF: Fried Chickpeas”

I have made roasted chickpeas before. Someone had posted the idea/recipe on the celiac listserv. Same concept and taste as your fried chickpeas, but just done in the oven at a high temp. They are really tasty and a great source of protein.

Thanks, Mel. I’ve enjoyed the oven roasted ones that we’ve been making for a while now too. These fried chickpeas melt in your mouth, which is what made them a hit with the colleagues. LOL Sometimes I just had to jump in to the land of the fried. Thanks for sharing your link! I’ll go check your recipe out now too. -Kate